Girls who learned to aim at learning, not scores, put off schoolwork less
Who it’s about: Students
- Helped
After twelve group sessions on learning over scores, girls said they put off schoolwork less than untrained girls.
- Action: Aim to learn, not to impresstested
- Action: Challenge unhelpful thoughtstested
- Rule: Practise with a groupused
Small randomised trial of 30 high-school girls in Iran · vs girls who got the training only afterwards · they rated themselves · ⚠ numbers unreliable
The study
Who took part
30 girls at a high school in Yazd, Iran, about 16 on average, with 15 in each group. They were not chosen for putting things off.
What they did
One group had twelve 90-minute group sessions over four weeks. The sessions covered valuing learning over scores, seeing effort as a skill, and fear of failure. They also covered comparing yourself with others less and ways to plan and check your own work. The other group got nothing and was offered the training afterwards.
What happened
At the end, the trained girls rated themselves as putting off test preparation, essays and homework less than the other group. There was no later check. Parts of the paper contradict each other, for example about the girls' school level, so treat the results with care.
Source
Designing and investigating the effectiveness of goal-orientation based motivation training theory on students' academic engagement and procrastination (2024)
DOI: 10.22037/ijabs.v11i3.46743 (opens in a new tab)Tools in this study
Action3
Aim to learn, not to impressSet goals around learning and improving rather than scores, approval or beating others.
Action5
Challenge unhelpful thoughtsCognitive restructuring of beliefs such as perfectionism or catastrophising.
